Oxazolidinones as a chemical class find widespread use as pharmaceutical agents for the therapy and prophylaxis of such medical conditions as bacterial infections and atherosclerosis. The utility of these compounds has spurred efforts to find efficient routes to synthesize them, such as the copper-catalyzed cross coupling disclosed in US 20070049759. US 20070155798, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, recently disclosed potently anti-bacterial oxazolidinones that feature substituted pyridinyl phenyl moieties. These moieties were initially incorporated by synthetic routes involving tin-based couplings, which because of the toxicity of any residual tin compounds is not desirable for pharmaceutical use. Accordingly, a need exists for synthetic routes to substituted (pyridinyl)phenyl oxazolidinones that does not involve use of tin reagents.